UCLA Spring Sing The George and Ira Gershwin Award
Spring Sing 2009 at UCLA
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| Abbreviation | SS |
|---|---|
| Motto | UCLA's oldest and greatest musical tradition |
| Formation | 1945 |
| Type | student-operated |
| Purpose | To unite the UCLA community by promoting artistic talent |
| Headquarters | UCLA |
| Location | |
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Region served
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Greater UCLA Community |
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Executive Director
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Paige Allenspach |
| Affiliations | UCLA Student Alumni Association, UCLA Alumni Association |
| Website |
alumni www |
Spring Sing is an annual music competition held in May at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion. Touted as "UCLA's oldest and greatest musical tradition," the competition brings together UCLA students to perform as solo artists, duets, bands, and a cappella groups in front of an audience of over 8,000 UCLA students, alumni, faculty, staff and celebrity judges. The 2017 show will be held on Friday, May 19.
The competition began in 1945 under the direction of William Ackerman. It began with only 11 groups and was performed on campus at UCLA's Royce Hall. In the beginning years, the competition was composed mainly of fraternity singing groups, serenading their sorority counterparts. The first of these groups to win the competition was a barbershop quartet from the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.
During the 1950s and 1960s, the competition grew quickly and outgrew Royce Hall. It was then, that Spring Sing gained its popularity and notoriety within the Los Angeles area, as it moved to the Hollywood Bowl. During these years, up to 15,000 Bruins, family, friends, and locals witnessed the competition each year. Also added to the mix were celebrity judges and masters of ceremonies - including Ronald Reagan in 1952.
The competition peaked in the late 60's and took an 8-year hiatus during the 70's until student and alumni interest revived the event (on campus this time) in 1978. In 1986, the UCLA Student Alumni Association took over the event and moved the event to the Los Angeles Tennis Center in 1989, eventually returning the competition back to its previous glory.
Today, the competition has expanded from its original version of fraternity singing groups, to over 15 artists grouped in 6 different categories (Solo, Duet, A Cappella, Band, Production, Exhibition). Each category (save Exhibition) is judged and a winner is selected for each (from which an overall winner is chosen to receive the "Northern California Alumni Grand Sweepstakes Award").
In addition to the talent aspect of Spring Sing today, the overall production has been turned into entertainment with the inception of the Company - a group of UCLA students who perform skits, songs and parodies in between each act as a way of introducing the next act. According to their website, they are "a group of the most hilarious and creative people on this campus who live for the spotlight and the opportunity to make an audience crack up."
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